


Confidence

by cercey



Category: RWBY
Genre: (so basically the show), Gen, References to Depression, implied eventual bumbleby, other members of team rwby mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28206777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cercey/pseuds/cercey
Summary: Yang is feeling a little on edge, and Qrow gives a little tough advice.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen & Yang Xiao Long
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Confidence

The night had already fallen on Mantle, but some of the day’s dying light could still reach into the heights of Atlas. Yang looked out at the orange horizon, the white snow untouched past the grime of the city below.

There was so much wrong with Mantle, and its people deserved so much more than Atlas gave them. But as much as she’d love to knock someone out to give people enough food, she knew this wasn’t a problem she could deck and fix.

She heard footsteps approaching from the hall and turned - she was pretty sure this was a spare room, but she might as well face someone if she was trespassing in their dorm.

“Knock knock?”

Yang stared at the open door. The one her favorite uncle very distinctly decided not to knock on.

“Uncle Qrow! What’s up?” she asked. “And whazzat?”

Qrow leaned on the doorway with some kind of drink - not in a flask - in hand.

“Just came from terrorizing the Ace-Ops. You shoulda seen their faces,” he chuckled. He took a sip of his drink and scowled, then took another. He shook the bottle. “This is technically water but it just tastes terrible here. Anyway, half a pillar broke off and almost killed the wolf one.”

“Brutal. He’s fine, though.”

Qrow smiled. “Yeah, yeah, he’s good.”

He started walking over to her, and paused a moment. He looked out at the hallway, and closed the door.

“You got something on your mind?”

Yang looked out the window. Most of Mantle’s lights were on now.

“Or is this an ‘out in the woods where nobody can hear us’ conversation?” he asked.

“You sound like Raven.”

“Glad to hear it. Now excuse me while I find a cliff to throw myself off.”

Yang snorted.

“I really wish that meeting had gone better for you. No helping Raven, though.”

“Yeah, I don’t really want to talk about it,” Yang replied. “There’s no point.”

“Spoken like a Branwen, huh, champ?”

Yang shrugged. “That’s not always a bad thing.”

She eyed the door.

“If this isn’t about Raven,” Qrow asked, “then what  _ is _ going on in that thick skull of yours?”

Yang crossed the room, toward the wall of beds, fidgeting with the hinges of her prosthetic. The places where the plates met each other seemed like they should have scratched each other, but they were fine. The only thing she could complain about were places where paint had begun to chip off, from scratches or scrapes or maybe just a bad job.

“It’s nothing too serious, it’s just-” She balled up her fist as she tried to figure out what to say. “It seems obvious, but I’ve just been feeling kind of on edge. And I know, after the fall of Beacon, and learning about Salem, and Oz showing up, and literally everything that’s happened, it sounds stupid and obvious, but it basically felt fine up until recently.”

“Recently?” Qrow asked. “Like, ‘Atlas sucks’ recently, or like, ‘past few days’ recently?”   
  


“Okay, before that, I guess,” Yang said. “It just feels like our problems have changed ever since Blake and I offed Adam. I mean - it felt really good, but now it’s like I’ve had to focus more on just Salem and what we’re going to do about her.”

Qrow nodded and hummed. Or grunted. Those always sounded the same coming from him.

“I think I see what you mean, kid.” He took another swig of water. “But what’s got you down right now? Why is this gnawing on you today?”

Yang frowned and knit her brow.

“What,” Qrow offered, “do you think some bullshittery is afoot?”

Yang waved him off.

“No, I mean, no more than usual. You’ve seen how shady Atlas is - even Weiss’s family is looking sketchier than normal in this light.”

“Like Ironwood looking even more suspicious on his home turf?”

“That and you just hate the guy.”

“Cheers, I’ll drink to that.”

Qrow knocked back the last of his water. His “water”.

She pointed at the empty glass. “Maybe don’t?”

Qrow snorted. He put the bottle down on a nearby table with a satisfying crack and crossed his hands behind his head.

“Fair enough.” he said. “Wouldn’t want break my streak, there.”

“Yeah, you’ve been doing pretty good, Uncle Qrow. We’re proud of you, you know?”

Qrow smiled. 

“Hey, kid, you’re really growing up aren’t you?”

“Am I?”

“Nah.”

She stuck out her tongue.

“But back to you,” Qrow continued, “what’s happening?”

Yang sat down on a table, one leg dangling, the other hugged towards her chest.

She frowned.

“I can’t put my finger on it, but I think something is up with the team.”   
  


Qrow joined her sitting on the table.   
  


“The team? What about it - d’you think you want to lead instead of Ruby or something?”

She shakes her head.   
  


“There’s no way, I trust my baby sister’s decisions.”   
  


“There’s no way you trust you trust your baby sister’s decisions?”

“Pft. Not fair!” Yang punched his arm.

“Kidding, kidding. But seriously, listen kid.” He cleared his throat and let out a heavy breath. “Yang, I’m going to level with you. You know how Taiyang is a ball of sunshine and nothing gets him down?”

“Yeah,” Yang smiled. “It’s pretty cool, actually.”

“And you know how I’m your cool uncle?”

“And how Ruby is my sister and Raven is my mother? Are we listing relatives or something?”

“Actually? Kind of?”

“I thought you  _ weren’t _ drinking.”

Qrow laughed.

“Well, you must have noticed it by now. There’s something kind of - how to put this - kind of fucked up about me and Raven. In different ways, thank whoever the hell decided to fuck us up different from each other. But I digress.”

Yang sighed. “I mean, there’s something messed up with everyone, at this point. We’ve seen people die and we’ve just had to keep moving. We’re soldiers in a war most people don’t even know about, and everyone says they can’t!”

“Yang, everybody’s got trauma, but it doesn’t send everyone to kill their subordinates or try to drink themselves to death.”

“Oh.”   
  


“Yeah,” Qrow nodded.

Yang pushed herself further back on the table and rested her head on the gray wall. It was cold, just like the rest of Atlas seemed to be. She crossed her arms.

Qrow laid a hand on her shoulder and shot her a look that said something like “brace yourself” or something like “I know and I’m sorry.”

He continued, retracting his hand with a huff. “That’s why I’m glad Taiyang got you out of that funk.”

Yang tilted her head. “Funk?”

Qrow flicked her prosthetic. It let out a dull  _ thunk _ .

“That’s fair.”

“Just hear me out, though. Team STRQ? We fell apart. We lost Summer, and even when Taiyang could have fallen apart because his friend and wife died, and his other teammate and also wife left him, he kept it together, for you and Ruby. He had someone to keep himself together for.”

Yang uncrossed her arms. The reds and oranges of the sunset had already finished falling beyond the horizon. Now, only the cold blue and white lights of Atlas shone through the window that wasn’t even theirs.

“At least he never dated you, though.”

“Thought about it.”   
  


“Ew!”

Qrow laughed.

“But you know what? You’ve been holding up so far. And if I were you, and I was talking to me, I’d try to keep the team strong. You’re good together. It sounds like even when you were far apart, you were trying to learn from each other, and that’s all you can try to do.”

Yang sunk down, her hair a pretty terrible cushion on the hard table, and let her legs dangle.

“That’s the thing, though. I don’t want us to split up again, but I can’t help but feel like we’ll need to. Things are getting worse with all this power uncertainty in Atlas, and it feels like something big is going to happen, and we’re all going to have to run. And when we do, I don’t know if we’ll all be able to run together.”

“Have a little confidence.”

Yang sat up. 

“Uncle Qrow, I think I’ve got that by now.”

“In the  _ team _ , kid. Ruby loves you more than anything in the world. Maybe not as much as Zwei, but you’re damn high up there, too.”

Yang smiled.

“And Weiss? The one thing Weiss wants right now, it’s a family. It’s somewhere to belong and be useful and have a helping hand when she needs one. And if I had to guess, she knows the team is as good as she can get.”

“That’s kind of harsh.”

He shook his head in deliberation. “Maybe. But you owe it to her to be honest about her situation right now. She deserves teammate’s who’ll be there for her.”

Yang crossed her legs and settled her hands on her knees. “But what about Blake? She ran back home the moment Beacon fell.”   
  


“Yeah.” Qrow said. “And then? How’d she act once you met her again?”

Yang could feel her heart skip a beat.

“She’s, you know,” Yang trailed off.

“Don’t give me that. You’ve been joined at the hip.” Qrow laughed.

Yang balled her fists and glared at him.

“Aw, come on, it’s fine that you are. You get each other.”

Yang’s eyes softened, but not by much. She looked away.

“If there’s something wrong with the team, then you just have to make it work anyway.”

He offered his fist.

“Yeah?”

Yang huffed and bumped his fist.

“Yeah.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked the work! Might turn this into a longer thing (but probably not.) Buzz buzz, etc.
> 
> -  
> Anyway, I'm new to RWBY but even I can tell the catgirl and the angry one should kiss


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